The Reluctant Dragon

Just wanted to share. Today Melissa had a field trip to a threater in downtown Portland that I got to go to with her. It was a really impressive puppet show.

The story was about a dragon who made a home near a village and when he was discovered, it caused a mass panic throughout the village. They begged for “Sir George” to come slay the dragon.

The son of the shepherd who discovered the dragon decided to visit the dragon and learned he wasn’t an evil dragon at all. The boy and dragon found out they had a lot in common (they both liked to write poetry, for one) so the boy now had to convince Sir George to at least meet the dragon before he fought him.

The villagers made up stories about the dragon killing their sheep and burning down their barns but the boy told George these were just stories and got him to meet the dragon. George discovered the dragon was definitely a good one, but the villagers wouldn’t believe it by just his and the boy’s word. So George and the dragon decided to do a pretend fight. In the end, George “won” and “taught the dragon a lesson” and managed to convince the villagers to let go of their stereotypes and let the dragon live among them. There’s a lot of benefits to having a good dragon as their ally.

It’s hard to describe how they did the show. It was only two actors that played all the parts. They had these puppet things (with handles) and huge props. Like when the dragon came out of the cave, it was actually a HUGE puppet that had to be strapped to the actor’s back. It was just cool.

I was amazed at how well the show kept 100 kids’ attention! They all did great too.